Highway Funding: Roads Decline Steeply

Funding for roads and bridges didn't get the attention it deserved during the presidential campaign, but that could and should change as Washington's focus shifts to the fiscal cliff.

Funding for roads and bridges didn't get the attention it deserved during the presidential campaign, but that could and should change as Washington's focus shifts to the fiscal cliff.

The nation's surface-transportation system has been in crisis for years, with more than half of the federal highway system in inferior condition, and more than a quarter of America's bridges structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Those figures are based on a 2006 study. Little has been done since then to slow the decline.

At the root of the problem is the federal gas tax, an outdated and neglected method of paying for federal transportation aid to the states. The tax — 18.4 cents per gallon of gas — has not been increased since 1993.

Congress declined to raise the tax in June when it passed a two-year, stopgap transportation plan for road, bridge and transit spending.

FISCAL CLIFF AHEAD

Instead, $18.8 billion in general taxpayer funds were allocated, in addition to fuel-tax revenue, to keep spending at current levels — about $52 billion a year — through 2014.

At that point, without additional funding, the federal Highway Trust Fund is forecast to go broke.

Congress and the Obama administration can no longer afford to kick this can down the crumbling concrete.

Transportation funding should be part of the talks aimed at avoiding the fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, set to take effect in January.

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, established by Congress to study the funding issues, said in its 2009 report that all levels of government are spending $138 billion a year less than needed to maintain the system and make modest improvements.

MANGLED MATH

The commission recommended switching to a tax based on the number of miles driven instead of the amount of gas purchased. Such a tax, it said, would more closely reflect use of the transportation network and encourage Americans to drive less or make car trips more efficient.

The faulty logic in that proposal is apparent when one considers that additional miles driven already result in the drivers using the road more paying more. The incentive to drive a more fuel-efficient auto and to drive less is built in to the present gas-tax system.

Simply charging a per-gallon tax sufficient to pay for road needs would solve the problem. Further, it would do so without any of the intrusive methods needed to compute a driver tax based on miles driven.

Congress and the Obama administration should take the issue of fully funding road and bridge repairs and upgrades seriously — but in a simple and sensible manner.

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